Tinnitus is the sensation of hearing sounds when there are no external sounds present and can be loud enough to attenuate the perception of outside sounds. Tinnitus may be caused by inner ear cell damage resulting from injury, age related hearing loss, and exposure to loud noises. The tinnitus sound perceived by the affected patient may be heard in one or both ears and also may include ringing, buzzing, clicking, and/or hissing.
Some methods of tinnitus treatment and/or therapy include producing a sound in order to mask the tinnitus of the patient. One example is shown by U.S. Pat. No. 7,850,596 where the masking treatment involves a pre-determined algorithm that modifies a sound similar to a patient's tinnitus sound.
However, the inventors herein have recognized issues with such approaches. For example, the modified sound used in the treatment is generated using a masking algorithm that only partially modifies the spectral qualities of the tinnitus sound. As such, the modified tinnitus sound includes the tinnitus sound of broad band noise only. Thus, an individual patient's tinnitus sound may not be completely masked by the modified tinnitus sound. Additionally, such systems of masking a patient's tinnitus sound may not offer the ability to adjust the sound based on the evolution of a patient's tinnitus over time.
In one example, a method for tinnitus therapy may include tracking a tinnitus therapy over a duration, the tinnitus therapy including a tinnitus therapy sound matching a patient's perceived tinnitus played over the duration and presenting each of a volume evolution of the tinnitus therapy sound and usage data of the tinnitus therapy over the duration. In this way, changes to a patient's tinnitus therapy may be tracked over a period of treatment.
It should be understood that the brief description above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.